Problem: Four pens and three pencils cost $\$2.24$. Two pens and five pencils cost $\$1.54$. No prices include tax. In cents, what is the cost of a pencil?
Let the price of a pen be $x$ and the price of a pencil be $y$, in cents. We can use the following system of equations to represent the information given: \begin{align*}
4x + 3y &= 224, \\
2x + 5y &= 154. \\
\end{align*}We can subtract the first equation from twice the second equation to obtain $7y = 84$, so $y = 12$. Therefore, the cost of a pencil is $\boxed{12}$ cents.